JBS canceled shifts at large U.S. and Canadian meat plants on Tuesday after the company was hit by a cyberattack over the weekend, threatening to disrupt food supply chains and further inflate food prices.
The attack caused JBS’s Australian operations to shut down on Monday. The company, the world’s largest meatpacker, said it was working to resolve the incident, which has stopped livestock slaughter in JBS plants in several U.S. states.
“On Sunday, May 30, JBS USA determined that it was the target of an organised cybersecurity attack, affecting some of the servers supporting its North American and Australian IT systems,” it said in a Monday statement.
The company has not responded for additional request for comment on the nature of the attack or why meat production is being impacted. JBS controls about 20% of the slaughtering capacity for U.S. cattle and hogs, according to industry estimates.
JBS reported the incident a few weeks after a ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the United States, crippled fuel delivery for several days in the U.S. Southeast.
The attack also comes at a time of rising meat prices as China increases imports, food costs rise…
